I have been using IBM App Connect for application integration.
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Cloud migration and versatile features facilitate seamless application integration
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The features I find most valuable are message routing, message transformation, and protocol translation. IBM App Connect is a market leader and has been migrated to the cloud, allowing it to run efficiently in that environment.
What needs improvement?
I don't see any necessary improvements as IBM App Connect has been a market leader for many years. I find it particularly good for on-premises and now cloud use. Any major improvements have been addressed with App Connect Enterprise. Perhaps more tutorials for the training of new people who want to learn IBM App Connect would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with IBM App Connect for eleven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of IBM App Connect as nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of IBM App Connect as nine out of ten. It has options to scale up integrations as required, especially when the traffic to the application is higher.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support from IBM is good. I have worked with the IBM team on several products, and overall, it is satisfactory.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of IBM App Connect is not tough. It's relatively easy and just requires installing the software.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Competitors to IBM App Connect include MuleSoft. However, I have never worked on Mule ESB, so I can't offer a comparison.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend IBM App Connect Enterprise to everyone. It is suitable for all company sizes, from small domestic banks to large corporations in various industries such as banking, insurance, and airlines. I would rate the overall solution as eight or nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
IBM
Hassle free apps and data source integration
What do you like best about the product?
Can connect with almost all types of data engines and application available in the market
What do you dislike about the product?
Low code user interface could be made self descriptive for non technical stakeholders
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Connecting applications with almost all type of data sources on the go
Good way to automate my business workflow
What do you like best about the product?
UI/UX to setup and automate my workflow is great. Have worked with many integrations tool and must say that it is one the best way to low code and solve the business use case.
What do you dislike about the product?
Use of debugger is not working well and crashing the process and thread in my mac os system.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It is used by me to solve my business use case of building quick simple application to manipulate XML files as well as since it has many small prebuilt connectors and templates, it is very easy for me to connect applications and build workflows.
I Have been working on different middleware since 2013, IIB/IBM ACE is one of them.
What do you like best about the product?
Light weight installations.
Felexible message flow development.
Resource availibity in region for support.
Felexible message flow development.
Resource availibity in region for support.
What do you dislike about the product?
IBM ACE should have not to run with only IBM MQ, it should have run with Others like JMS Q, Rabit MQ etc..
Limited features of security authentication
Limited features of security authentication
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Transformation & Connectors , solves of point to point integrations by reusability of services.
Development Experience
What do you like best about the product?
The best about IBM app connect is to distributed our workload in multiple message flows, when the message needs to go through multiple hops and multiple downstream systems, the visual feel of the message flows improves readibility and understading the hops the message is taking in the system. The logging framework based of Pub/Sub event monitoring is also really easy to use and implement. The developer doesn't have to do extra efforts to do the logging in the code itself.
The support team team are also really helpful, also depending on the priority of the issue and the activity done on the client end, I have observed that they do join the issue calls rather quickly, and try to resolve the issue. Also the TAM (Technical Account manager) before any big activity do ask us to open a ticket as a place holder so that we can engage the support team quickly, and shared the scripts that need to be run in case things go south. This level of support is always appreciated.
The support team team are also really helpful, also depending on the priority of the issue and the activity done on the client end, I have observed that they do join the issue calls rather quickly, and try to resolve the issue. Also the TAM (Technical Account manager) before any big activity do ask us to open a ticket as a place holder so that we can engage the support team quickly, and shared the scripts that need to be run in case things go south. This level of support is always appreciated.
What do you dislike about the product?
I feel there's a lack of out of the box connectors although you can use the the Rest api, http nodes to connect to service with http api available, the other is that the lack of builtin security features such as encrypting/signing the payloads, although this can be achieved using java but it has it's own cost to the jvm heap.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The problem that it is solving is when we have to send heterogenous messages to multiple downstream systems, and it also acts a touch point for all the traffic entering our eco system.
Very robust application
What do you like best about the product?
IBM app Connect is user friendly, no code interface and a very powerful application.
What do you dislike about the product?
There was nothing i felt which I should dislike
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Easy connection of data lead to effortless mapping and helped us in empowering business solutions
Easy-to-use product with efficient integration features
What is our primary use case?
We use the product mainly for the integration of enterprise applications.
What is most valuable?
The platform's most valuable feature is ease of use. It has an efficient design flow. We can receive or use the resources and integrate them with other software as gateway integrations.
What needs improvement?
More connectors could be available for the product as some of the third-party software doesn't have default connectors.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using IBM App Connect for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product's stability itself has been quite reliable. However, we encounter a few issues while shifting to a recognized environment. It wasn't a product issue but a platform issue. Now, a lot of issues have been resolved.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product's scalability in a containerized environment is notably advantageous. Scaling up or down is straightforward and highly flexible, responding directly to your company's requirements and the continuous environment it operates within. We can easily add up more machines or scale down when needed. In contrast, deploying it as a VM is a slow process.
A team of five developers works on integration within the Android and Firewall systems. Tracking the number of integrations created is not straightforward, but from initial checks, around 20 integration servers are established, handling various integration points or tasks.
How are customer service and support?
Most of my interactions with customer service and support were related to infrastructure queries rather than platform-specific issues. Initially, when we began using the containerization approach, some hidden issues were inherent to this new method, which required support. While I would classify the support as something other than the best, they eventually resolve issues. Quick responses were typical for simpler queries, but resolution could take anywhere from a week to two weeks for more complex or bug-related issues. For these instances, they often needed to escalate the matter to their development team for a comprehensive solution.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The cloud platform integration's complexity depends on the prior experience working with it. For a beginner, the process would take a lot of work. It is straightforward once one gets familiar with it.
In implementing IBM App Connect, multiple options are available, each with its complexity and steps. You can set it up on a single virtual machine, which is comparatively simpler. Next, deploying it within a Kubernetes environment or as a Docker container requires additional steps for configuration but provides more flexibility. The recommended approach is deploying in OpenShift, which offers advantages but might involve a more comprehensive setup process.
Utilizing pre-existing operators created by IBM significantly simplifies the setup, reducing complexity for implementation. Once set up, developers gain convenient access, enabling them to swiftly create the instances, possibly automating the process with minimal effort. This advantage makes the Kubernetes or OpenShift environment particularly favorable, offering scalability and ease of use for App Connect instances.
Various roles handle different aspects of IBM App Connect deployment and management in organizational settings. For instance, an integration specialist or administrator may focus on IBM App Connect's configuration and management, while developers require access to the environment for development. Additionally, some organizations might have specific roles dedicated to supporting production environments, restricting access accordingly. While in certain scenarios, one person might fulfill multiple roles; larger organizations tend to separate these responsibilities among different individuals or teams to maintain control, security, and proper governance over the deployment and usage of the product.
It is easy to maintain. When IBM releases a new version or features, upgrading to these updates via the new operator is relatively straightforward. It typically involves just a few clicks to upgrade to the latest version. While there are considerations and guidelines to follow during these updates, adhering to these steps makes the process simple and manageable. Overall, with proper adherence to guidelines and instructions, the maintenance, updates, and upgrades within Kubernetes environments are simple and can be handled efficiently.
What was our ROI?
The ROI for the platform at my current customer's site predominantly revolves around long-term usage and centralizing integrations. It proves beneficial in managing critical operations like banking. By avoiding issues from scattered integration points, the time taken to resolve problems has notably decreased, contributing to operational efficiency. However, quantifying the exact financial savings, particularly regarding reduced downtime or post-implementation updates, would require detailed analysis by someone well-versed in the financial aspects.
What other advice do I have?
IBM App Connect is a part of Cloud Pak. Thus, it benefits us with the ease of integration of multiple components. We can overview the integration capabilities as well.
Those using IBM App Connect should opt for a containerized solution rather than a VPN-based one. Containerization offers greater flexibility and can resolve several issues compared to a more traditional VPN setup.
I rate it an eight out of ten.
Stable product with efficient features for data transformation
What is our primary use case?
We use IBM App Connect for business use cases involving data transformations. It can perform tasks such as converting XML to JSON, XML to CSV, or vice versa. Additionally, it can handle API conversions with mapping and transformation rules, simplifying the development process. It offers security features for APIs. It includes support for TLS (Transport Layer Security) and encryption mechanisms.
What needs improvement?
IBM App Connect should improve security features and have a faster mechanism than MuleSoft, which has better capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using IBM App Connect for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product's stability is good. However, we encounter issues with complex services. I rate its stability a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable platform. I rate its scalability an eight and a half out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support services need improvement in terms of response time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used MuleSoft before. Both products have similar capabilities. Large enterprises use App Connect more, while MuleSoft is more suitable for medium or small enterprises.
How was the initial setup?
The product's deployment for on-premise servers is easy. At the same time, it is tedious to deploy on clusters. We use the DevOps pipeline for on-cloud deployments. It takes a few seconds to complete the process.
What other advice do I have?
I rate IBM App Connect an eight out of ten. I recommend others for the product if you need to build highly scalable and secured services. In the case of services for enterprises with a high volume of APIs, I advise them to use the enterprise version of the product.
IBM app connect User
What do you like best about the product?
its very easy to intigrate and its easy to deploye, API developement is become very easy bcoc of app connect
What do you dislike about the product?
some time app is not working properly, and the cost of product is also bit high
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
managing APIs and importining them, and bcoz of node we dont need to write so much code so its become easy to use
review for APP CONNECT
What do you like best about the product?
It helps integrating various applications
What do you dislike about the product?
User experience is not upto the mark .The application gets choppy while deployment
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It helped me in developing almost 1000+ APIs effectively . It is easy to understand and helps creating various APIS in short time .
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